We think the outbreak can
still be contained, but I think it
will take really dramatic action
on the part of federal authorities
helping to get vaccines and treatments
out to people really quickly.
He's talking about monkey pucks,
and the cases continue to
rise across the United States.
So right here in Colorado,
the new numbers say that there are 53
people in the state that are known to
have tested positive for that virus.
To put it in perspective,
that's not close to the numbers
in New York or California.
Those states have about 1200 and 800 cases,
respectively.
Last night,
the Department of Health and Human Services.
They're going to be bringing in
another 786,000 doses of monkey pox
vaccines into the United States.
That's more than double the
300,000 doses already distributed
to local health departments.
So today we're bringing back nine
health expert Doctor Phil Coley
to talk about vaccines with us.
The monkey pox vaccine specifically,
is it new? What are the options?
What? What are we looking at?
There's actually 2 vaccines that have now
been approved by the FDA for Monkey Pox,
and they're a little different,
so genials, which is the.
The one that's the live vaccine
is not capable of actually
replicating inside of you,
so that's the one we prefer for people
who might be pregnant, have HIV,
or have a compromised immune system.
It's two injections given four weeks apart,
and you're not fully immune
until about six weeks.
Go by now because of the short supply.
Some states, including Colorado,
are offering just the one shot, but really,
that's not how it's supposed to be used.
There's a second vaccine as well,
which is actually a smallpox vaccine that
they've now expanded use for monkeypox,
and that's a little bit different.
If you remember smallpox,
they make that big hole.
Yeah, in your arm, yeah,
so that's a one shot,
but it's not meant for people who have
a compromised immune system because
it could replicate inside of you.
Ohh
well, naturally most of us are
undereducated as far as finding out
which of these vaccines we may want.
If we want a vaccine.
How do we learn more?
I mean, you've given us a briefing,
but is that up to our doctor?
Or should we be making that decision?
I think your doctor should
help you make that decision.
For most people that are healthy,
they're sort of interchangeable,
and we think the efficacy
is probably comparable,
although we don't yet.
Know in this current
outbreak how well they work,
the geniuses and short supply,
it's the preferred vaccine
because it's actually monkey pox,
not smallpox,
but that's a little harder to come by,
and it's,
you know may not be something we can get,
but your doctor would be the right.
What about the decision to get vaccinated?
How do? How do you go through that?
So that one we have to make ourselves because
we have to self identify where in a high
risk group such as men who have sex with men,
are certain behaviors that could put us at
high risk like our sexual partners, our work.
If we work in a lab or a healthcare facility
that could put us at high risk or if we're
adjacent to somebody who's high risk,
and even if we've been exposed
to somebody who's infected,
you can actually get the vaccine
even after the exposure up to two
weeks after the exposure.
So it's a good idea to do
it after as well as before
that. Well, that's different,
so it can work as as a as a treatment as
well as a preventative.
Closure prophylaxis or prevention,
and then there's a post exposure,
but for the post exposure you really
want to try to get it in those first four
days so you have to know you have to know
that you were exposed to someone it now
you can get it from day four to day 14.
According to the CDC,
but it may not prevent infection.
It may just give you a milder infection,
but if you think you've
been exposed to someone,
it's time to pick up the phone,
call your doctor and try to
find a vaccination center.
And if you had the smallpox vaccine,
any any benefit to that?
Yeah, so you know,
for people that are older than 45 or 50.
They may have had the smallpox vaccine.
We think? Yes, there should be benefit
because it's the same family of viruses.
The orthopox viruses about an 85%
protection is what we've seen in Africa.
But the smallpox protection does
go down over time, so if it's been
a long time since you've had it,
in fact, if they say more than
three years and you get exposed
to somebody with monkey pox,
you should still then follow
up with a repeat vaccination.
The name really does add
to the the fear factor,
and it's not really a part of the puzzle,
but but it's it's there, so it's got that.
Name, but as we stand still
in the the battle with COVID,
I think people are more tuned in
to how things can spread quickly.
How concerned are you about
monkey pox and those numbers?
We have 53 cases we know of in Colorado.
You think that number is higher?
Much higher because we're not
using testing as much as we should.
We should be vaccinating more widely
than we are and I'm concerned as
our our adolescents, teenagers,
kids go back to colleges as schools open up.
You know, we travel more and we can
be exposed through bedding and such.
Those cases.
Are expected to increase and the
director of the CDC has said that so
we all need to educate ourselves and we
need to start working on prevention,
treatment, testing all the same
teas that we talked about with the
COVID-19 and now here we are in a
place where we can just test at
home for COVID. And we're not in
that spot with something else, but
not at all. In fact, the testing
requires you to scrape the pimples,
collect the sample from the pimples,
and it's only done in specialized labs.
So that's something we need
to work on as the fall comes.
Power, color. We've learned
a little bit more today.
We will continue to turn to
you For more information.
Thank you very much.